


A Fool's Proposal

by thatredhairedgirl



Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-02
Updated: 2014-04-02
Packaged: 2018-01-17 22:15:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1404439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatredhairedgirl/pseuds/thatredhairedgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He wasn’t one for grand and romantic gestures.  And Molly would probably think he was up to something if he planned something elaborate anyway.  So Sherlock simply placed the ring box on her work station and waited for her to arrive for the day.  </p><p>One-shot, pure fluff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Fool's Proposal

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first foray into fan fic, so thanks for taking a peek.

He wasn't one for grand and romantic gestures. And Molly would probably think he was up to something if he planned something elaborate anyway. So Sherlock simply placed the ring box on her work station and waited for her to arrive for the day.

_______

Molly had already had a rough morning, and it was only 9 am.

One of her neighbors’ children had decided that April Fool’s Day was the perfect day to dump a load of trash outside her front door. Someone on the tube had decided that it would be a hilarious joke to place a fake rodent on her bag when she wasn’t looking. She had probably never screamed so loud in her life. And everyone had stared at her like she was insane.

Molly detested April Fool’s Day.

So when she finally arrived to work, and was greeted with a very expectant Sherlock, her boyfriend of some time, she tried very hard not to sigh with annoyance.

"What is it, Sherlock?" she said in greeting.

"Perhaps you should take a look for yourself," came his reply.

She looked down at the table, and saw the ring box. Sherlock simply watched and waited for the grin to appear, and for her to kiss him senseless, proclaiming her endless love to him. Or, you know, something like that.

He was not, however, expecting the immense frown, and for the tears that began to pour from her eyes.

"You are a complete and utter arse, Sherlock Holmes." Molly ran from the lab and went to her office.

Sherlock stood there, blinking rapidly, at an utter loss as to what had just happened.

\------- 

 

What was he thinking?  How could he possibly think that a fake proposal would be funny to her?

After fleeing the lab with tears streaming down her face, Molly reached her office and slammed the door.  Didn’t Sherlock know her better than that by now, to play such a horrible prank on her?  

The more she thought about it, instead of becoming more depressed, she grew irate. Of all the ridiculous antics that she’d had to endure with Sherlock, this was by far the worst.

A sharp rap on her door drew her from her thoughts.

"Molly?  May I come in please?"  Sherlock’s voice said from the other side.

"Go away, Sherlock,"  Molly nearly shouted.

"Molly, please."

"Sherlock, if you know what’s good for you, you will walk away from my door right this moment," she said.  "I don’t want to see you right now."

"Molly —"

"Just GO!" she yelled through the door.

There was a pause, and then she heard the sound of his footsteps walking away.  She sank into her office chair, and rubbed her hands over her face.  The sound of her cell phone pinging from her bag caught her attention.

_I’m not entirely sure what this is about, but I feel that we need to discuss whatever it is — SH_

_You know exactly what this is about.  And I can’t believe you’d even think that it was alright! — Molly_

_Molly, you are being ridiculous — SH_

Ridiculous? Ridiculous!  ** _She_**  was being ridiculous?  The nerve!

_I will speak to you when I am ready. — Molly_

————

To say that Sherlock Holmes was confused would be an understatement.  Perhaps Molly had suffered some sort of head injury on her way to work, he pondered.  Could she have been slipped some sort of mind altering drug that would make her act this way?  

As far as he knew, women generally considered proposals of marriage to be a positive event in one’s life. Molly was no different than any other woman, generally speaking.  

Sherlock doubted that his manner of proposing had been what had set her off.  But really having no experience in the matter (other than that one time with Janine), he decided that perhaps he needed advice.

"Hello?"

"John, you said that this was a good thing. And now it’s all gone to hell!" Sherlock barked into his phone.

"What are you on about?"  John replied.

"I proposed to Molly, and now she won’t speak to me!"

"What?  Sherlock, how could you possibly manage to cock up a proposal to the woman who has been in love with you for years?" John said incredulously.

"If I knew that, I wouldn’t be calling you," Sherlock snapped back.

"Well, I’m not really sure what to tell you," John replied.  "I really thought she would say yes."

Sherlock gripped the phone tighter in his frustration.  If John, couldn’t help him in his conundrum, who could?

"Who’s that, darling?"  Sherlock heard through the phone.  Mary.

"Sherlock.  He’s proposed to Molly, and somehow cocked it up," John said to his wife.

"I didn’t!"  Sherlock snapped.

"What, today?  He proposed  _today_?” he heard Mary say from a distance.

"Yeah, this morning,"  John replied.

"Is he daft?  Of all days to propose…"  Mary said.

"What’s wrong with today?"  John said.  Sherlock heard the shuffling of papers on the other side of the phone.  And then John laughed softly.

"Sherlock, what day is it?" John asked.

"Tuesday," Sherlock replied, exasperated.

"No, Sherlock.  What day of the month?"

"How the bloody hell should I know?  And what does it even matter?" Sherlock cried.

"It’s the first of April,"  John said quietly.

"Your point being?"

"Sherlock…it’s April Fool’s day," John explained, as though to a child.

The line was quiet for a long time as Sherlock pondered this information.  The signs had all been there.  Scuffs of tomato sauce on Molly’s shoe from where she had kicked away the garbage from her front door.  The minute tear in her jumper from where she had ripped it, getting caught on a loose nail on the tube, after getting a scare.  Signs of pranks that she’d been on the receiving end of that very morning.  And then he had been there waiting with a ring box.

"Damn."  The line went dead as Sherlock hung up.

\-------

John had been right.  He had cocked it up.  Spectacularly.  Though, in Sherlock’s defense, how was he to know the date?  And why should Molly buy into such nonsense anyhow?  And really, how could she believe that he would ever fake propose to her in the first place?

Okay, so he had proposed to a different woman under false pretenses once before.  But it was definitely better not to rehash that old chestnut.

And alright, there  _ **had**_ been that one time when he had suggested that they fake a marriage for a case.  But it had been for a case!  In retrospect, Molly had been rather cross with him for quite some time after that.  So, that probably hadn’t been the best idea.  And probably best not to bring it up again as a defense.  Or ever.

But now he really was at a loss as to how to fix this.  Molly didn’t want to speak to him.  Wouldn’t even give him a chance to explain.  Sherlock knew he didn’t want to — couldn’t — lose her, not after wasting so much time finally figuring out how he felt about her.  At the very least, she didn’t say that she never wanted to see him again, so he had that much working in his favour.

As he sat in his chair, trying to come up with a plan, footsteps could be heard making their way up the staircase.

"Woo hoo!" Mrs. Hudson called.

"Hello, Mrs. Hudson," Sherlock replied drawly.

"Well, how did it go?  Was she surprised?"  Mrs. Hudson was practically bouncing with excitement.

"No.  Actually, Molly burst into tears and stormed off.  Refuses to speak to me at the moment."

"What?  Oh, Sherlock.  What did you say to her?"  Mrs. Hudson was very much invested in Sherlock and Molly’s relationship.  Having witnessed how much the two truly cared for each other, she felt it her life’s duty to see the two of them happily married, and to give her grandtenants.

"I didn’t even say anything to her.  She took one look at the box and started crying, then told me she would speak to me when she was ready.  I’ve spoken with John, and apparently there’s been a misunderstanding,"  Sherlock said exasperatedly.

"What sort of misunderstanding?"

"Seeing as how it’s April Fool’s day, Molly appears to be under the misapprehension that I was trying to play a prank on her."

"…..Were you?" Mrs. Hudson asked hesitatingly.

"Of course not!" came Sherlock’s incredulous reply.

"Alright, dear.  No need to shout. You had better fix this, or I’ll be having a talk with your mother.  She has a lot to answer for, especially in regards to your manners,"  the landlady said.

Sherlock rolled his eyes at her blathering.

"I mean it, Sherlock.  Molly is such a nice girl, and she puts up with a lot from you.  You had better go back and see her today."

"She won’t see me today, Mrs. Hudson, not after…" Sherlock trailed off, a plan forming in his head.  "I’ve got it.  Brilliant, Mrs. Hudson, as usual!"

————-

Molly lay in bed restlessly for two hours before she finally drifted off to sleep, only to be woken by a loud pounding on her door.  She looked at the clock.  12:01 am.  There was only one person it could possibly be.

Making her way out of bed, she knocked Toby off from his resting place beside her.  He glared at her, and ran off.  Molly grabbed for her glasses, and threw a sweatshirt on over her camisole for good measure.

The pounding continued before she finally shouted, “Alright, alright! I’m coming!”  Peering through her peep hole, she confirmed her suspicions.  Sherlock.  She unlocked the door, and opened it.

"Sherlock.  I told you.  I will speak to you when I am ready.  And I am most definitely not ready in the middl—"

"I wasn’t pulling a prank,"  Sherlock blurted out.

Molly stared at him, unsure what to say.

"It wasn’t a prank.  I wouldn’t fake something like that.  I didn’t realize the day when I decided that today, or rather yesterday, was the day I would ask you to be my wife.  If I had known that some ridiculously idiotic holiday would get in the way of being with you forever, I certainly would have waited one more day,"  Sherlock said, holding Molly’s gaze.

She kept staring, speechless.  Sherlock took her hand.

"If you want, I will ask you again, as it is now April the second.  And I will keep on asking you until you say yes. I’ve wasted so much time already.  Time that we could have spent together.  I don’t want to spend another minute without knowing that you really truly are mine.  That we belong to each other.  So, Molly Hooper," Sherlock said, reaching into his coat pocket with his free hand, drawing out the ring box.  "Will you marry me?"

Molly finally dropped her gaze, and lowered her head.  When she raised it again, it was with tears in her eyes, and a happy smile on her face.

"Oh Sherlock Holmes, you complete clot.  Of course I’ll marry you,"  she said.

Sherlock breathed a sigh of relief and pulled her into a tender kiss.  Releasing her, he opened the box and slipped the ring on her finger.  They both stared down at the ring, smiling to themselves, when Molly finally broke the silence.

"Don’t even think about suggesting the first of April as a wedding day."

Sherlock laughed, “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

**_fin._ **


End file.
